We are just about done with the garage. We ordered a new backdoor a couple of weeks ago and the guys came to install it. The old one has a dog door for Ed. Since winter is approaching, we will just let him out the back door.
The guys did a good job. I love watching the professionals do their thing. Besides having the right tools to make quick work of it, they have done it so many times it is almost second nature. For me sometimes these things are a major project. They make it look easy.
The tricky piece of it can be hanging the door ’square’ since it opens and closes without any hitches. This one took about an hour and it was done. Works like a champ.
We are going to have them do some siding work, and we will paint the door and it should be all done shortly.
A Back Door for the Garage November 1, 2008
RV Industry taking a hit October 26, 2008
It is November 1 which puts us five months away from putting our house on the market. Our target date is still April 1, 2009.
We have been on our RV journey since August 2007. That has been 15 months. So what has changed? Do we still feel the same about things? Are we sure we want to go through with this? What about the gas prices? The economy?
Speaking of the economy, RV News is reporting the RV industry has taken some major hits: Look at Fleetwood, Winnebago and Monaco.
You may recall we were looking at getting a Holiday Rambler which is made by Monaco. They have closed three plants and moved most of their operations to Oregon. Both Fleetwood and Winnebago have made major moves as well.
We are looking at things a little differently although we are still committed to doing this.
Our choice is the Tiffin diesel Phaeton model. They are family owned and Bob Tiffin has indicated he is going to ride out the current crisis. He has slowed down also, but still putting out four coaches a week. He will not build one unless it is sold. Hopefully things will work out and he will still be in good shape in the spring.
Another thing we are thinking about is our shrinking 401k and 403k plans. Although our high income producing years will end next year, we are still ‘in it for the long haul’. We won’t be drawing on them for another 12-15 years probably.
Gas prices will continue to fluctuate so the higher they go up, the less likely we would to be traveling.
We are probably going to be workamping and staying at a National Park or Bureau of Land Management site for two – three months. We also are interested in building projects like Habitat for Humanity and NOMADS. More on that another time.
Until then, take care and drop us a note or comment sometime.
Another step to fulltiming — fixing up the garage before we sell the house October 10, 2008
We still intend to put our house on the market next April. In order to get ready, we are systematically taking on different projects. The garage has needed a lot of work and something we wanted to turn into an asset instead of an eyesore.
Our efforts began by painting the walls and ceiling and then we concentrated on the floor.
Mike (my brother-in-law) and Jeremy(Mike’s son-in-law) were a huge help this last week. They drove up from Tennessee with their wives and kids/grand kids.
You can tell it is break time: Mike and Joan taking a breather and Noah is inspecting things.
Ed (our dog) is doing what he does best… and is at his full speed 
Surprisingly, the work went pretty quickly after we got into a rhythm. Jeremy is working on the wall near the front door.
We started on the walls in one corner, got the ceiling painted and then worked on the floor. After Jeremy finished the walls, he put two coats of epoxy on the floor.
It turned out well and we are that much closer to getting our house ready to sell in the Spring (2009).
We have more work to do and will keep you posted!
Annapolis September 16, 2008
Mary and her husband Cameron live at the US Naval Academy where he is an instructor. Cam was on duty so he wasn’t able to join us. Mary did a great job of showing us around a few of the sights on campus. We went to the academic building (known as Bancroft Hall) where plebes attend class.
Not far away is the 21 foot Herndon monument. Plebes try to climb to the top of it and replace the dixie cup resting there with an upperclassmen’s hat. One obstacle is 200 pounds of lard that it has been coated with by the upperclassmen. It usually takes 2-3 hours to get the job done!
We also went to the tomb of John Paul Jones which is below the chapel on the academy grounds. He was the father of the American Navy.
The USNA grounds are very impressive, to say the least. It was a beautiful day and a fun afternoon.
Conference Highlights September 12, 2008
The primary reason we wanted to go to the Life on Wheels (LOW) Conference is to learn about the technical aspects of the motor home. We had to pick and chose from over 60 classes. Here are some of the highlights:
We feel like we need to have a basic understanding of how things work. Al Cohoe (pictured here) teaches RV classes at a technical college in Canada. Some of his classes we attended were
- Maintenance & Repair: Propane
- Operation & Maintenance: Furnaces/Water Heaters
- Electrical Systems
- Generators
- Refrigerators
- RV Delivery Inspection
Russ Maxwell gave an excellent presentation on: Awnings – Proper use and maintenance. Key item: NO WD-40 use CRC dry silicone instead
A real helpful class was: Driving Your RV. Dennis Hill provided some great tips on making sharp right hand turns, going up hill, backing up and a whole list of other items.
Part of our research effort over the past year has been to go and talk to people at dealers, campgrounds and now RV conferences.
Attending this was very beneficial and I highly recommend it. It filled in some of our questions on: how does this work?
Gettysburg and Life on Wheels September 7, 2008
This is the day we have long been waiting for: The Life on Wheels Conference.
After church, we headed out for Harrisburg PA. It is about 120 miles away. Rt 15 took us right by Gettysburg which is one of our favorite National Parks so we stopped and spent a few minutes there. We have been to Gettysburg five or six times in the last 15 years. We heard they had changed some things and they have. 
The biggest change is that they moved the Visitor Center a few miles out of town. It is brand new and opened earlier this year. We didn’t stay long enough and will have to go back again.
Harrisburg Area Community College is the site for this year’s fall LOW conference.
The Wildwood Conference Center is a new facility and seems like it will accommodate the conference well. Tonight was check in and an overview of the next four days. Tomorrow we begin the series of workshops.
Gaylord Maxwell was the opening speaker. He is the founder of the conferences which began 15 years ago. He has been RVing for over 50 years. He is the author of several books and is a writer for Motorhome Magazine. (Sadly, Gaylord Maxwell passed away two weeks after this conference at his home in Coeur d’ alene, Idaho after a brief illness. The he will be sorely missed.)
We left for dinner at Crackerbarrel, then went back to the HACC where a number of folks with RV’s had parked their rigs. During the opening, they mentioned a number of people hang out in the evening.
We decided to see if we could talk to a few folks and quickly got engaged in long conversation with two of the conference speakers: Dennis and Carol Hill, and Susie and Denny and Susie Orr.
Pam has the gold sweatshirt in her hand. She is standing next to Steve and Karen – whom we met online talking about Tiffins.
The day was a full one and the conference is off to a great start. These RV people are really friendly!
Rocky Gap September 6, 2008
We decided to visit a State Park and see if we could talk to some folks who worked there. Talking with folks about volunteering is one thing we are doing as part of the research and learning activities of the RV lifestyle.
We chose Rocky Gap State Park because last summer I went to a Men’s Retreat at (near Cumberland MD) and wanted to see it again. It is 2 1/2 hours from Fairfax VA and it was a very nice drive.
When we first go there, we stopped at the campground office at talked a lady in the registration office. She is one of the volunteers and works from May to the end of Sept for a free full hook up (FHU) at a campsite.
Next, we asked to see the sites and drove through the campground. We stopped at the main area where they had some tents set up for some Labor Day activities. Today’s event was corn shucking. After the competition they were serving hot dogs and hamburgers to the campers who participated.
We met Dennis and another couple and talked with them for some time. They all lived in nearby towns but spent most of their summers at Rocky Gap as camp hosts in one of the loops. They had been volunteering their for over ten years.
They did a lot of maintenance at the campsites during the weekends and assisted campers. During the week they did work on the buildings and grounds.
Though our visit to Rocky Gap State Park was short one, we were glad we had a chance to talk with some volunteers so we could get an idea of what they did.
It would be fun to go back and camp there. May be one day we will be able to do that.
Trip to Red Bay August 22, 2008
We have decided on a Tiffin 40′ Phaeton mortorhome, model QTH. We have heard only excellent things about it so we decided to take a trip to the Tiffin RV factory in Red Bay, Alabama.
While we were at it we decided to find Tiffin RV dealers within a few hundred miles of the factory and see if any were candidates for our business.
You will see a map of our trip, followed by pictures taken at the dealerships we visited as well as the RV factory at Red Bay.
The airplane symbol indicates Birmingham International Airport. The RV icons indicate the four RV dealerships we visited.
View Larger Map
We flew into Birmingham Saturday evening and drove east to Dandy RV in Anniston Alabama.
Next, we drove west to Red Bay near the Mississippi /Alabama border.
Red bay is the ‘Tiffin factory’ town.
Since there were no motels in Red Bay, we drove northeast to Russellville AL, about 25 miles away.
(Red Bay is indicated by the red thumbtack. The bed indicates the location of Russellville, AL. )
On Monday morning before the tour at Red Bay, we went to the Tiffan Campground. RVers park there while waiting to get into service bays for some work on their motorhomes.
Finally, the RV factory tour. A ’sea of chassis’ become dream home in the factory.
After the factory tour we headed west again past Tupelo MS to Sherman RV.
We called ahead and they were ready for us. We got to test drive the one on the right facing us.
To say that it is ‘fun’ driving these babies is an understatement!~
Next, we headed to Memphis TN and Davis RV Mart.
We spent the night near Graceland not far from the RV dealership. Little did we know it was ‘Elvis Week’. We went out to dinner at a great BBQ place and called it a night.
Tuesday morning we spend a couple of hours at Davis RV Mart and got to test drove another Phaeton. We had an early afternoon and drove east to Huntsville Alabama.
At Bankston RV, we saw a large inventory and tried to get a feel for how their service would be after a sale.
We both took turns test driving another Phaeton. I think we will be sharing the driving alot so it is important we both feel comfortable behind the wheel.
Next, we headed south to Birmingham to catch our flight back to Fairfax, VA. It was a tiring trip but we were able to accomplish our goals of seeing the Tiffin coaches getting built in the factory as well as checking out some very good Tiffin RV dealers in the region.
This is an exciting time for us. Researching and learning about our new lifestyle is invigorating and fun.
Watch for more posts and feel free to post a comment and add us to your website. We’d love to hear from you!
Until next time..
Thursday – 7/07/08 August 7, 2008
0501
Trying to decide how best to get back into a rythym of communing with God in my devotions. Helps if I don’t succomb to temptation and squander this time on the internet. I am thankful today for his GRACE. His amazing grace which is forgiveness in the lust that is sadly an area which I struggle with. So I accept His grace today and ask for help at the moment. We will see how the day goes.
One big fear (and therefore a motivator) is that we are proceeding down this path of RVing yet I don’t FEEL the presence of walking with God. At the moment (and for the last 12 months maybe, I don’t feel as if I in walking in the Spirit. So I want that and am ‘working out my own salvation with fear and trembling’.
Help me get close to you and hear your voice.
All for today. Have a lot to do. MS review and IFAS Project Plan to get out; Staffing Management Plan to get out.
Anticipated Monthly Costs July 27, 2008
About three years ago a friend asked, “What is the number? How much do you think it is going to cost you to live when you retire*?”
Great question. We had no idea. No REAL idea. So we mulled it over, looked at some blogs and sites and made up a number. It looks like it may be around $3,520.42 per month which is $42,245.00 per year. Maybe more, maybe less. At least it is something to shoot at.
Here’s how we came up with the numbers:
RV and Car Insurance. We use USAA for our insurance and will probably continue with them. This was based on a quote if we were residents of Texas. We now think we will become residents of South Dakota so both these numbers are probably a litte high.
Diesel. This is for both the diesel generator and the coach. We are using $5.00/gal as a planning factor. The motorhome has a 100 gallon tank. If we fill up twice a month (200 gallons @ 8.4 mpg = 1,680 miles) we could go a lot of miles. We anticipate staying at a campground for a week or two at a time.
Gas-car. We will be selling our truck and probably giving away our SUV. Right now a Honda-CRV is at the top of the list for a vehicle to tow.
Propane. At time we could use propane to run our stove or refrigerator and for grilling. We grill three or four nites now and will likely continue.
RV Maintenance. Many items will be covered under warranty. This will cover unknowns and give us some savings for $250 tires.
Campgrounds. I am using $25/nite but this is may be high. We will be using military campgrounds where available and also may be using Passport America which gives good discounts. We are members of Escapees and Good Sam which are RV clubs with discounts.
TV/Internet. Probably will use a Verizon EDVO/Air card for primary Internet access and Hughes.Net for satellite/TV access.
Cell phones. We have AT&T mobile which we will be using. Another option for access to our kids will be SKYPE. That has worked well from here to Korea.
Groceries. We hope to be able to shop at commissaries.
Mail. There are a number of mail forwarding services that we considered. We will probably go with Alternative Resources in South Dakota. We will get a mail box and they will forward it the post office nearest us.
Laundry. Although many Class A motorhomes have stackable washer/dryer combinations, we think we’d rather not get them and use the space instead. Laundromats are fine and many campgrounds have a laundry room.
Medical. We can use TRICARE and have already set that up for our travels. We used to be assigned a specific hospital with TRICARE Prime. With TRICARE standard, we can find doctors in the area where we can be seen. We still need to figure out the dental coverage.
Visa. This is almost the same as our Misc category. I am sure we will find things to use this for.
Misc. The big challenge is for us to work at a ‘minimalist’ attitude about our spending. We have made strides but have a ways to go so this area stays under control.
This is doable. We will be watching it closely so we have some freedom and for it not to be a burden. A big question is how much we will get for the house. Right now the market looks like it is holding its own and ebbing toward a recovery in our area. If we come out with more than we are planning, that could affect how much we would have to work. Yes — we fully intend to work as RVers. ‘Workamping’ can help considerably. If we work at a campground for a month we could easily reduce our budget by over $800.
Here are a couple of other peoples web sites where they discuss finances and related items:
Howard and Linda Payne:
Fred and Jo Wishnie
Norm and Linda Payne (no relation to Howard and Linda)
Fortunately, there are many sample budgets online of folks who share that information. Howard and Linda have quite a story and are living near the $3,000/month budget. They have a melded their lifestyle into a ‘business’ so some of their costs are business expenses
*I’ll save it for another blog, but I doubt we will ‘retire’. Looks like we will need to work part time to sustain the fulltime RV lifestyle and we look forward to it.
rwarner22
